Transport Targets Outstripped

Workers and staff on China's transport and communications front have assiduously studied the theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and this has spurred their initiative and boosted production. Railway transport tasks for the first half of the year were overfulfilled at the end of June. The turn-round time of trains was shortened; various technical targets and the percentage of trains running on time were all raised- Both production of factories and enterprises under the railway system and its capital construction fulfilled the state plans. In the Liuchou Railway Administration Bureau, for example, the quicker turn-round time of rolling stock resulted in the overfulfilment of its January-June transport targets. Quotas for major freight such as coal, oil, grain, cement and chemical fertilizers were all fulfilled in good time. In the Harbin Railway Administration Bureau, haulage of freight in the first half of this year reached more than 53 per cent of the planned annual tonnage. Quotas for such important freight as coal, timber and grain were overfulfilled. Following the fulfilment of last year's state targets, water and road transport and capital construction in the first half of this year also overfulfilled their tasks ahead of schedule. The volume of water freight was 22 per cent higher in the first six months of this year than in the comparable period last year, while the volume of freight handled by the main ports was 10 per cent greater. The number of passengers and the volume of goods handled by motor vehicles in the six months also showed increases over those of the corresponding period last year. Capital construction for water and road traffic was carried out at a faster rate and work completed was up 57 per cent compared with the same 1974 period. Coastal ports and those along the Yangtze River continued to handle a greater volume of goods. Lienyunkang and Tsingtao fulfilled their half-yearly targets 24 and 14 days ahead of schedule. New achievements were made by shipyards repairing and building ships. The Shanghai Shipyard, which has been overfulfilling its planned targets annually since the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution started in 1966, in the first half of this year rang up a gross production value 27 per cent greater than that of the same 1974 period. Harbour builders in Talien and Chinhuangtao completed their half-yearly quotas ahead of time by two months and one month respectively.